Friday, May 28, 2010

Chomsky regards himself as a supporter of Israel and brags about meeting Walid Jumblat. (Thanks Raed)

PS It is an extremely disturbing interview (forget about the Israeli reporter here) but the reference to Israel "harming itself" as Chomsky put it, is telling enough. It is time that we learn that we dont have to stand and applaud any White Man who comes to our region with some criticisms of Israel, OK? I mean, imagine if a supporter of the struggle of blacks against Apartheid were to say: I count myself as a supporter of the Apartheid regime.

Can you imagine if this is being said about any other people? I can say that writer is himself frozen in time: in classical racist times. And notice that Western writers measure the Middle East by how it feels to them personally. So if this guy misses his childhood days, we should join him too. Having said that, I do agree with him that Sadat and Mubarak are so much worse than Nasser. At least the latter did not embezzle the riches of the country and died broke. (thanks Nicholas)

""Either they take over our ships and force us to come to Ashdod, or intercept and sink us — or we'll make it to Gaza. If we make it, we will have broken the siege. If they sink us, they will be showing the true face of a country gone insane. And if they force us into Ashdod, then they will be exactly like pirates in the Gulf of Aden . . . they'll be the new pirates of the Mediterranean."

Tell this genius in the Los Angeles Times this: if the language is antiquated, how come Arabs (except him and his friends) still write it and read it? "Although “Modern” Standard is a beautiful language, it is antiquated — 1,300 years and 800 miles separate it from Egyptian Arabic."

""When Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinian Arab community was split between those who remained inside Israel's borders -- and became Israeli citizens -- and those whorelocatedto the West Bank, Gaza or farther abroad. Today, Arab Israelis constitute one-fifth of Israel's citizens." (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

Saudi government bans the Lebanese political website, Sawtakonline, because it is "explicit" sexually. Imagine. When the Saudi website, Elaph, wins annual awards in being the most disgustingly sexist and sleazy of all Arab websites. (thanks Ahmad)

Jordanian Queen Youtube told a German magazine that she does not care what is over the head: that she only cares what is inside the head. But in her case, I would care about what is over the head. There is not much inside there.

"Most Palestinian children arrested by the Israel Defense Forces and police are intimidated, abused and maltreated in custody, according to the sworn testimonies of minors who were arrested last year. This happens both before and during interrogation, and several minors have been sexually assaulted."

"Palestinian medical sources reported that ten residents, including a pregnant women, were wounded on Thursday at night by Israeli army fire during clashes that took place in Silwan town, near Jerusalem." (thanks Olivia)

" Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will receive $75,000 to appear at a California State University campus fundraiser next month, two sources at the university have confirmed.The sources, who have seen the contract for the appearance -- at Cal State Stanislaus, in Turlock -- said it calls for $75,000 plus expenses for Palin's hotel, air fare and travel." (thanks Dina)

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai is weighing approval of an expansive new business deal that could give his controversial half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, increased influence over the lucrative security business that protects supply convoys for U.S.-led forces in southern Afghanistan." Controversial is the American media lexicon is the reference to a criminal and corrupt tool of the US government.

"Despite the rhetoric of defiance and resistance, and exaggerated screams of anguish from Israeli settler groups, the PA effort actually appears designed to co-opt, undermine and abort the much broader Palestinian civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), and to reassure Israel of the continued docility and collaboration of its puppet regime in Ramallah." (thanks comrade Electronic Ali)

I will be spending the summer in Lebanon. I am asking those volunteers to send me links to be more selective during that time as I will not have as much time to blog. I have to sample new restaurants (like Ka`kat) during the trip.

"The PFLP leader called on Salafi groups to formulate a clear strategy for resistance, and while he expressed his disapproval for the Muslim sect's theology, Da'na said he supported its trends. " (thanks Farah)

"In 2003, several prominent Jewish philanthropists hired Republican pollster Frank Luntz to explain why American Jewish college students were not more vigorously rebutting campus criticism of Israel. In response, he unwittingly produced the most damning indictment of the organized American Jewish community that I have ever seen." (thanks Maria)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

"A little-noticed blog post by a veteran intelligence reporter averred Tuesday that the CIA's Iraq Operations Group weighed a plan prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion that sought to discredit Saddam Hussein by portraying him as gay." (thanks Olivia)

""Fakih's modern looks and open-minded interests are indicative of a portion of Lebanon's population that is Western-oriented and non-conservative even if they belong to the Shiite sect of Islam."" (thanks Saja)

Monday, May 24, 2010

The UAE campaign against Lebanese Shi`ites and Palestinians of Gaza continues: "Two hundred Gaza residents were denied re-entry into the UAE and are presently stranded on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, they told Ma'an on Monday." (thanks Olivia)

"“The security services have arrested a high-ranking Egyptian officer who infiltrated the Gaza Strip to gather intelligence about the Palestinian people, the government and other matters,” Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad was quoted as saying in Falasteen, a newspaper with close ties to Hamas." (thanks May)

"Let's start with the most obvious. This is a cynical ploy by the Israeli government to divert attention from the findings of the UN report. Government officials have almost said as much. A foreign ministry official described the investigation by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth as "explosive PR material". Hasson claims: "Had [the Israeli foreign ministry discovered this earlier], it would have greatly helped us in our activity against the report." But the report is about Gaza, not Goldstone. Having lost control of the message, Israel is now trying to shoot the messenger. That Israel would try to do so on the backs of black South Africans is a laughable indication of its desperation. For if Goldstone was complicit in apartheid's crimes, then Israel was far more so. Israel was South Africa's principal and most dependable arms dealer. As we learn elsewhere in the Guardian today, it even offered to sell the South African regime nuclear weapons. "Throughout the 70s and 80s Israel had a deep, intimate and lucrative relationship with South Africa," explains Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa. "Israel's arms supplies helped to prolong the apartheid regime's rule and to survive international sanctions." No criticism of Goldstone's complicity from representatives of the Israeli state can be taken seriously that does not acknowledge and condemn Israel's even greater support of the self-same system." (thanks Laleh)

Let me be clear on this. Several AUB students wrote to me. I meant to say that AUB and its developments are not earth shattering because they it is an elite university that mostly cater to rich kids and spoiled brats--me included if you want. But several wrote me wondering if my reaction to the developments is in any way influenced by my friendship and deep respect and admiration for provost, Ahmad Dallal. I have known Ahmad since high school, and nothing will change my opinion of him and he has my full confidence. I am reserved in praising Ahmad for his own sake, otherwise I would elaborate. Yet, i support the strike just as I support every and any student strike, unless it is led by right-wing forces. Let me be clear, i now identify with the stance of the Palestine Cultural Club on campus, and I dont support the Lebanese Forces-led USFC and their double dealings and their racist effort to exclude Palestinian students from decision making. I also want to say: that I of course denounce the physical attack on Ahmad or on his deputy, Professor Ghaddar. Ahmad and I know a thing or two about student strikes and know how they should be managed. I also want to tell students at AUB especially the USFC that Ahmad is not and should not be their object of anger. The White Man in New York City runs AUB, and not the provost in Beirut. Make no mistake about it. The PCC is trying to modify the 15-credit policy to make rich students pay for the disadvantaged students. So the PCC has my support. March on. And if you need me, I will be in Beirut soon. I would never miss an opportunity to rail against colonial institutions of higher learning in our midst.

This guy Khuri led on behalf of Hariri-Bush alliance the marketing of the Hummus Revolution in Lebanon: ""The fault in my opinion lies on the heads of the intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie in the country. Proof of that is the specific March 14, 2005 day, that day would not have happened if it wasn’t for the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie making the move. Most remarkable in 2005 was not that there were masses down there but who was down there, it was every doctor that you went to to fix your teeth, your professors from school, the banker you always looked up to. It was your idols who were on the street."" (thanks Evan)

"Fundamentalist Muslims, or Salafis, whose agenda of global or holy war against the West is against Hamas's nationalist goals, have stepped up attacks in the Gaza Strip over the past several months, targeting Hamas security men and offices."

"There is a continuous delegitimization campaign against us. We are described as betrayers. But I can't betray something I'm not part of. I'm not part of the army. I'm not part of the Zionist ideology. I'm a victim of Zionism.... It's inhumane to demand that we be loyal to Zionism or accept Israel as a Jewish state. I can't accept a definition that strengthens the discrimination against non-Jews in Israel."

"A Palestinian protester was wounded by IDF fire in the northern Gaza Strip after he and 10 of his colleagues refused to abide by IDF orders given on the site not to approach to border fence." (thanks Sarah)

Look at this: King PlayStation manages to play ping pong while thinking about (humiliating) peace with Israel: "The Conflict Resolution Program at Georgetown University is pleased to announce a call for applicants for the King Abdullah Generations for Peace, Sport and Peacebuilding Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The fellowship will support innovative research on the intersection of sport and peacebuilding." (thanks Waleed)

"What Islam really needs is a reform branch — Reform Islam, which, like the Reform Jewish movement, would reconcile an ancientfaith with modern ways.

The problem is that those of us who were born into Islam and who don’t want to live according to scripture — we don’t have what the Jews have, which is a rabbinical tradition that allows you to ask questions. We also don’t have the church tradition that the Christians have.

You have the mosque.The mosque is not the church.

True. It seems like more of a men’s club. It’s like a men’s club, and it’s a place where you discuss politics."

"In place of this precise slander and imprecise imputation, Bloom might have noted that some of the most robust left-wing discussion of Israeli policy has come from members of the British literary and academic establishment who are also Jewish (Tony Judt, Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh, Jacqueline Rose). If there is more political discussion of this order in Britain than in America it is not necessarily because the English are so anti-Semitic — or at least, I certainly hope not — but more likely (as Judt has pointed out) because most Americans live in almost complete ignorance of the “fierce relevance” of certain political realities and facts.

JAMES WOODCambridge, Mass.The writer is professor of the practice of literary criticism in the department of English at Harvard University."

In the village of Qulaylah east of Tyre, the AbuKhalil family is launching the strongest challenge to Amal-Hizbullah dominance in the Tyre region (in the municipal election today). The AbuKhalil is leading a coalition of leftists and Arab nationalists and SSNP against the Amal-Hizbullah ticket.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Some students at AUB have been asking me to comment on what is happening. Well, there is no reason why I should. I mean, i never took the status of AUB seriously, and never thought that it deserved any attention whatsoever, just as designer shoes don't deserve any more extra attention than Damascene sandals (qabaqib). I am now often accused of covering up for AUB or of softening my criticisms of AUB just because the new provost of AUB, Ahmad Dallal, is a dear friend and comrade of many many years. But that is not true: I mean, I criticized AUB last January on campus during my talk there. And Ahmad was provost then. I am still for the nationalization of AUB, and i am against the control of AUB by a remote board based in NYC and led by the White Man. I will be in Beirut in a matter of days and I shall be meeting with Ahmad to know what is going on. Of course, i would also like to meet with students, except those belonging to Lebanese Forces or Phalanges. I know that the "leader" of the movement belongs to the Lebanese Forces, and that gives me worries. I know that the leadership of the movement kicked out the Palestinian club the other day, and that raises more worries. Having said all that: i cant meet a strike, a rebellion, a mutiny, and movement directed against the state or authority or university that i don't support, unless it is managed and led by right-wing forces. So more later.

""There is an agreement between Israel and the SLA that they [the Israelis] will not withdraw from here before the establishment of peace and a solution has been found for the SLA and the people of the area." He continued: "The Israeli prime minister [Yitzak Rabin] stated publicly that among the conditions for peace are the disarmament of Hezbollah, the stopping of all military operations, security on both sides of the border and a solution for the SLA." He clarified that this "solution" meant integrating the SLA militiamen into Lebanon's regular army." (thanks Olivia)

"Regardless of the motivation, as a sex therapist, it seems to me that Arab women could use a little “affirmative action,” when it comes to showing the world that they can be powerful, sexual beauties. Blondes already know how to have fun (or so the theory goes). Muslim girls also ought to see hot, sexy, well-educated, responsible role models to whom they can relate succeeding in life—even promoting western values—beyond the burqa." I mean, this piece of...article belongs to a previous century, or two, at least. Shame on Counterpunch for printing. (thanks Saja)

"and sat at the impeccable table of Rafik Hariri when he was prime minister of Lebanon." Good for you, Robert. Good for you. What do you want for that? A medal with Hariri visage on it? Or would you like a blender that can spew hummus? Please let us know. And let us know how dining at the "impeccable" table of Hariri has enhanced your knowledge of the Middle East. And have you dined at the unimpeccable tables of poor Arabs, Robert? Let us know. Thanks. And then he says this: " Beirut is a happy place to live, wars permitting, and probably serves the cleanest and spiciest food in the Middle East." I mean, Robert Fisk has become so unreliable in his reporting on the Middle East that he can't tell spicy food from non-spicy food? Lebanese food is the most non-spicy and that is why it is favored by Westerners. (thanks Arun)

"One was the abandonment of the SLA, whose soldiers had linked their fate to ours and many of whom had fallen in combat, but were left to live in poverty in Israel or in humiliation and suffering in Lebanon. Their cynical abandonment is a moral stain on the State of Israel, a warning signal to anyone considering an alliance with us in the future." Are you crying yet? Yes, why not an Israeli newspaper publish an account of the ordeal of Nazi collaborators in France while you are at it. (thanks Norman)

There is much about Arab media that is not reflected in the US press or in Israeli propaganda outlets, like MEMRI. I mean, Al-Akhbar newspaper in Lebanon has a cover picture of Noam Chomsky and the headline is: Welcome, the Beautiful American. Such sentiments are not reflected in Western coverage of Arab public opinion, and MEMRI and other like minded crude, vulgar, and obscene propaganda outlets of Israel make sure to only cover Bin Ladenites of the Arab world.

"Israel, which initially tolerated President Obama's effort to thwart Iranian nuclear ambitions through sanctions, has grown increasingly impatient in recent weeks with the approach and concerned that whatever is agreed to now at the U.N. Security Council will only allow Iran more time to advance its program." Can you imagine if Arab countries express impatience with US delays to bomb Israel? (thanks Dina)

"A soldier from the ultra-Orthodox Nahal Haredi battalion of the IDF shot and killed a camel belonging to a Bedouin in the northern Jordan Valley on Friday." And can you imagine Western reactions if an Arab army has a Salafiyyah Batallion? The UN Security Council would have condemned. (thanks Sarah)

Bahrain royal family has been trying to show that they are more subservient to US/Israel than other Arab regimes. The crown prince of Bahrain has said that US support for Arab dictatorships has been responsible for "establishing stability and security" in the region. Kid you not.

""In reaction, a music industry insider confirmed that the winds could be shifting. The music executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity in light of his ongoing business ties with artists, said that in recent months he had approached more than 15 performing artists with proposals to give concerts in Israel. None had agreed. The contracts offered high levels of compensation. He called them “extreme, big numbers that could match any other gig.”" (thanks Emily)

It is fair to say that with this latest shipment of US military aid to Lebanon, the entire Middle East military balance has shifted from Israel to Lebanon. Mini-Hariri will say: thanks USA. (thanks Abdullah)

""His success in crushing the insurgency – and the dossier he compiled on Egyptian jihadists, many of whom joined Bin Laden after their defeat in Egypt – made him a valued partner for the CIA after 9/11. (As did Egypt’s usefulness in ‘extraordinary renditions’. In the words of the CIA agent Robert Baer, ‘If you wanted to make someone disappear – never to return – you sent him to Egypt.’)"" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"A large proportion of people in the United States would support a proposed law that would strip all Americans with links to terrorist organizations of their U.S. citizenship, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 77 per cent of respondents approve of the bill currently being discussed in Congress." (thanks Olivia)

"In an unprecedented outburst toward Saudi Arabia's religious police, a married woman shot at several officers in a patrol car after she was caught in an "illegal seclusion" with another man in the province of Ha'il on Tuesday." (thanks Safia)

"PB: I'm not asking Israel to be Utopian. I'm not asking it to allow Palestinians who were forced out (or fled) in 1948 to return to their homes. I'm not even asking it to allow full, equal citizenship to Arab Israelis, since that would require Israel no longer being a Jewish state. I'm actually pretty willing to compromise my liberalism for Israel's security and for its status as a Jewish state." (thanks Mohamed)

"In the end, we will only be left with Prof. Uriel Reichman. After we sent Prof. Noam Chomsky away, and there was no sharp rebuke by Israeli academics (who in their silence support a boycott of Bir Zeit University), we will be left with a narrow and frightening intellectual world. It will be the kind of intellectual world shaped by the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya – an institution of army officers and the rich, headed by its president, Reichman.A law professor, certainly enlightened in his own eyes, a former candidate to become education minister, Reichman says he doesn’t support the human rights group B’Tselem. That’s his right, of course; our right is to state that at the head of an important Israeli college stands a man who doesn’t understand a thing about democracy. After all, what does B’Tselem do? It gathers reliable testimonies on the sins of the Israel Defense Forces, very few of which, if any, have been proved wrong. Reichman doesn’t support this? In the world according to Reichman, we are left only with statements by the IDF Spokesman’s Office. We will believe that no white phosphorus was used in Gaza, that the “neighbor procedure” is something that tenants’ committees do, and that if they call a family and give them five minutes to leave before their home is bombed, that’s an action by the most ethical army in the world." (thanks Dina)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

"Three Palestinian girls have developed a walking cane that utilizes infrared technology to alert blind people of obstacles and drop-offs, winning the girls a trip to a prestigious science fair in California." (thanks Laure)

"But the Kurds, who are secular Sunni Muslims, are notably pro-Israeli in their attitudes. If it would not risk a major rift with the rest of Iraq, they would be happy to establish formal ties with the Jewish state. As it is, they maintain informal links. The Barzanis, the first family of the KRG, have a branch in Israel with whom they keep in contact. “It would be good for Iraq to have good relations with Israel,” a senior Kurdish politician told me.". Yet, in other news this about "democratic" Iraqi Kurdistan: "Kurdish writers and human rights advocates are protesting the torture and slaying of a young journalist, challenging what they say are oppressive restrictions to free speech in a part of Iraq that presents itself as safe and democratic." (thanks Daniel)

"A popular Saudi author and religious scholar has raised some questions about governmental and societal practices across the Arab world and asserts that the United States is more in alignment with many Islamic values than many countries represented as Muslim states."

"He is pursuing policies, which, in my view, are quite sensible, policies of essentially developing facts on the ground. It’s almost—I think it’s probably a conscious imitation of the early Zionist policies, establishing facts on the ground and hoping that the political forms that follow will be determined by them. And the policies sound to me like sensible and sound ones." (thanks Safia)

"The astonishing scene unfolded during a weekend shopping trip after the woman lawyer took offence at the attire of a fellow shopper resulting in argument during which the pair came to blows before being arrested. It came as racial tensions grow in the country as it prepares to introduce a total ban on burkas and other forms of religious dress which cover the face."

"Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish political scientist and one of the world's leading experts on Hezbollah — Arabic for "Party of God" — said it was "ludicrous" to suggest that Fakih, whose family includes Christians and Muslims, is a Hezbollah sympathizer. With her low-cut gown and jewel-encrusted bracelet — not to mention the tiny bikini, "She would be flogged if she showed up in any of Hezbollah's neighborhoods in Beirut," the Lebanese capital, Ranstorp said." This only proves that this world expert on Hizbullah has never stepped foot in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and has never ventured in the villages of South Lebanon. And the Western media flock to such characters to learn about the Middle East. (thanks Olivia)

I mean, what more important news than this. Prince Salman propaganda mouthpiece, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, announces on its front page that 15 girls won the Prince Salman's Award for the Memorization of the Qur'an for Girls. Celebrate.

"Hamas police wielding clubs beat and pushed residents out of dozens of homes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Sunday before knocking the buildings down with bulldozers, residents said. Gaza's militant Hamas rulers said the homes were built illegally on government land. Newly homeless residents were furious over Palestinians on bulldozers razing Palestinian homes." (thanks Olivia)

Now the longest Kufiyyah. What an insult to the long history of Palestinian struggle. As if the struggle has been over the longest kufiyyah and the biggest Musakhkhan dish. Let us liberate Palestine first and then we can engage in such silliness. (thanks Emily)

"The boycott campaign that calls for boycotting the products of the settlements’ factories, adopted by the Palestinians in the West Bank, caused the closure of at least seventeen factories since its start several months ago. For the Israelis, as reported by The Washington Post, Avi Alekiam, which represents owners of three hundred factories in the industrial settlement of Mishor Adumim Industrial West Bank, he said "the situation is unbearable."" (thanks Farah)

"Israel has passed the point of no return, Finkelstein asserted, saying he hoped that there were still enough people in Israel to stop the dangerous deterioration..." Norman has played an important role in combating Zionism and Zionists around the world. I have my disagreements with him which I discussed in private. But this sentence bothered me. The concern should always be for the victims of Israel and not for Israel itself. As for as I am concerned, I relish to see Israel in "dangerous deterioration." The deterioration of Israel is good for humanity and for real peace. (thanks Nikki)

The Syrian president and the Kuwaiti Emir signed various agreements in Damascus. One of them established for the erection of a monument to honor the Hafiz Al-Asad and Shaykh Jabir Al-Ahmad. I thought that the monument should be named: the Bloody Dictator and the Autocratic serial Polygamist.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

I received tons of submissions about the news that Chomsky was denied entry into Israel. Yes, it is bad but millions of Palestinians are not allowed into their homes. Let us not lose sight of the perspective.

"But surely the consequences of not lifting the blockade are far more grave? How is the peace process served by sickness, mortality rates, mental trauma and malnutrition increasing in Gaza? Is it not in Israel's enlightened self-interest to relieve the humanitarian suffering?" He ruined the article with the last sentence. It always has to do with "what is good for Israel." (thanks Olivia)

""Do you e-mail your clients?No. I never use e-mail. The girls use the e-mail.Are you referring to your secretaries? You should call them women, not girls.They don’t mind. They’ve been with me 25 years." (thanks Joe)

"Al Watan, arguably Saudi Arabia's most daring newspaper, seems to have lost its top man after Jamal Khashoggi, the publication's editor in chief, resigned earlier today." Oh, please. Enough with the most daring business. This is like calling Von Ribbentrop a voice of reason in the Nazi regime. Khashuqji never ever wavered in his support for the Saudi royal family and worked as spokesperson for individual Saudi princes. And his newspaper did clash with the religious establishment but not so much for liberal espousal. The paper was rather sleazy and commercial. Mr. Khashuqji is a former Ben Ladeinte, by the way. Is that not cute among Saudi pro-government "liberals"? (thanks Sultan)

"A stone-cutting factory here in the Maaleh Adumim settlement closed this month because Palestinian inspectors were routinely intercepting supply trucks, making business untenable, according to Elkayam, the factory owners' representative. The abandoned facility is now a concrete shell filled with bird droppings. A "for rent" sign is posted outside." (thanks Dina)

"The most brutal, naked boycott is, of course, the siege on Gaza and the boycott of Hamas. At Israel's behest, nearly all Western countries signed onto the boycott with inexplicable alacrity. This is not just a siege that has left Gaza in a state of shortage for three years. Nor is it just a complete (and foolish ) boycott of Hamas, save for the discussions over abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. It's a series of cultural, academic, humanitarian and economic boycotts. Israel threatens nearly every diplomat who seeks to enter Gaza to see firsthand the unbearable sights."

"On Friday, Palestinian sources said that 75-year-old Fuad Abu Matar was shot by Israeli soldiers near the border fence with Gaza. The sources said a 22-year-old was wounded in the shooting. Medical officials in Gaza said Abu Matar's body was found yesterday and that he had been shot several times. His family had reported him missing for two days, they said."

"“In my opinion, we have to find a way to limit these people, and maybe even revoke their citizenship,” the finance minister said. “Whoever opposes the State of Israel’s existence, whoever cries over its establishment, is raising a question mark as to if he can be a citizen in this state.”" (thanks Sarah)

"The construction of sections of a controversial segregated road network in the West Bank planned by Israel for Palestinians – leaving the main roads for exclusive use by settlers – is being financed by a US government aid agency, a map prepared by Palestinian researchers has revealed." (thanks Layali)

Yes, Samir Ja`ja` (Ga`ga` in the Egyptian accent) is now offering opinions on Palestinian strategy. Kid you not. For Ja`ja` to speak on Palestinian strategy is like Joseph Mengele offering opinions on patient care at Jewish hospitals. (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"A well-known American Jewish attorney who worked to deport former Nazis from the US is urging American officials to bar former judge Richard Goldstone from entering the country over his rulings during South Africa’s apartheid regime." Those Zionist hoodlums just discovered about Goldstone. They don't know that Israeli alliance with South Africa was a strategic feature of Israeli foreign policy. (thanks Yusuf)

Saturday, May 15, 2010

"The same microbiologist, who declined to speak on the record and who recounted extensive fungus work at Fort Detrick, also stated that researchers at Israel's Institute for Biological Research, located in Ness-Ziona about 20 km from Tel Aviv, have worked with the Cryptococcus gatti fungus. They also report that mysterious Israeli-American scientist Joseph Moshe, 56 years old, may have conducted covert studies with the fungus while he was recently living in California."

""Following the closures, sources said the PMA imposed a 300,000 US dollar fine per branch closed as the bank failed to inform the authority in advance of the move. Sources said the decisions came without consultation and appeared arbitrary, noting they flew in the face of Palestinian banking law. Other sources said President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had supported the bank’s decision, telling the London–based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Haya that “the administration of the Bank contacted both to cancel the fine [and demand an] apology." The unnamed source said bank officials complained that the PMA withdrew money from the Arab Bank accounts without consultation following the announcement of the fines.""

"Speaking to The Jerusalem Post immediately after a 90-minute meeting with Fayyad in Ramallah, their first meeting, Dershowitz said Fayyad “genuinely would like to bring peace and a two-state solution, based on his conception of what a two-state solution would look like.” This, he stressed, was “very different” from Israel’s conception, in matters relating to security, among others. But overall, said Dershowitz, Fayyad’s differences with Israel fell into the realm of “reasonable disagreement.” “I didn’t hear a single argument that seemed unreasonable,” said Dershowitz, adding, “The same goes for my recent meetings with Israeli leaders.”" (thanks Muhammad)

"The friction has grown more acute, Soumaya said, because the immigrants, many from North Africa, who came to Belgium in the 1960s and 1970s now have children and, sometimes, grandchildren who grew up here. The second- and third-generation Muslims, she said, have no intention of returning to North Africa and feel no need to "keep their heads" down, as their forebears did on arrival.Fouad Lahssaini, a lawmaker who immigrated to Belgium from Morocco as a youth, said that most Muslims in Belgium do not favor women wearing the full-face veil and that passing a ban was tantamount to "taking out a bazooka to kill a fly." He said that requiring women to identify themselves to police or expose their face for a driver's license photo makes sense, but that a ban seems little more than resentment over the high visibility of Muslims in Belgian society." (thanks Dina)

""Though we don't like to call it mass murder, the U.S. government's undeclared drone war in Pakistan is devolving into just that. As noted by a former counterinsurgency advisor to Gen. David Petraeus and a former Army officer in Afghanistan, the operation has become a haphazard massacre."" (thanks "Ibn Rushd"--who frustrates by not revealing his identity to me)

"“This program is essential for bringing Israelis spread out across the world back to Israel,” Landver told the Post. “It is important for us to focus on getting these people back and assisting them in raising their children here in Israel.”" Yes, just like Lebanon, there is an empire of Israelis around he world who are just waiting to return to Israel to fight in its war and be present when Israel goes down in flames. Yes, I am sure Israelis in the US are eager.

"Following the suspects' arrest, it was discovered that Dan L. and his brother, who was also detained, have connections to the Jewish Defense League (JDL), an extreme right-wing group founded by Rabbi Kahana. The two were previously members of the organization."

"President Barak Obama is expected to ask Congress in the coming days to approve a $205 million package to assist Israel in the construction of the anti-missile Iron Dome system. The Iron Dome system is made in Israel. Small cameras and radars are used to track and shoot down rockets that are capable of traveling 3 to 45 miles. The rockets are usually launched by extremists from Gaza and Lebanon. "Israel faces a lethal missile threat both from long, medium, and short range rockets," said Mark Regev, Israeli Prime Minister's spokesman. "This sort of project is crucial to the safety and security of Israel." I mean, i read this and I don't feel that Israel is taking extra measures to prolong its lousy shelf-life. I read this and I think: how desperate. They know the years of Israel are numbered and they come up with various schemes to convince themselves that they can let Israel last a year or two longer. They are just like Apartheid South Africa but the white supremacists there were much less dumb. (thanks Sarah)

"AIPAC and Hillel, the Jewish student group allied with AIPAC, came up with the strategy of having Jewish students tell the university senate that seeing signs calling for divestment frightened them. Some broke down in tears when describing the pain of seeing pro-divestment placards in the student union. It was hilarious because it was so utterly bogus. I know that I come from a different era. Back in the day when I was a pro-Israel activist on campus, we traded insults and threw chairs when confronted by our adversaries (some were scary Maoists!) but I don't recall weeping. We liked confrontation. We were college kids." (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"A well-placed British source informed WMR that Rahm Emanuel's father, Benjamin Emanuel, specialized in the terrorist bombings of buses carrying British troops and policemen during the British Mandate in Palestine." (thanks Layali)

"Nearly 2 million high school students worldwide are taking Advanced Placement tests this May, hoping to impress college admissions counselors with high scores and, perhaps, earn a few college credits. But one test question citing the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said on the theme of exile is prompting protests from some Jewish students." (thanks Samah)

"A night raid by American troops in the eastern province of Nangarhar left at least 10 Afghans dead, and within hours, on Friday morning, protests by their relatives and friends turned violent, claiming at least one other life, according to accounts from witnesses and Afghan officials."

"The Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip, headed by the Hamas movement, has decided to establish a new temporary refugee camp at the Erez Terminal, between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to absorb the Palestinians who were forced out of the West Bank recently." (thanks Marcy)

"But Israel is not among them. Officially at war with two of its neighbors and on guard against infiltrators from all sides, this country has held to the belief that its mined frontiers have served its security and national interest." If Israel were to use nuclear weapons on its neighbors, I can bronner writing: Arab Neighbors Push Israel to Do what is Necessary and Obligatory.

"When life is reduced to this brand of "we want to live" you have to fabricate it, as it does not have the wherewithal to regenerate itself. There can be no life under occupation without a fight against occupation. In the absence of independence and national sovereignty, sorrow and joy and life itself can only exist within the context of a project for national independence. When this is abandoned or unravels, all you get is a contrived folk festival passed off as authenticity and the love for life." (thanks Olivia)

"The parliamentary inquiry committee headed by MK Ahmed Tibi on hiring more Arabs in the civil service issued its interim report at the beginning of the year. This impressive report should have been an indictment of Israeli society. But the report was met with indifference. It reveals severe state discrimination. But the report is only part of the problem. The other part is political and national: We can't ignore that the debate about the "Jewish state" excludes Israel's Arabs by definition, shunting them into a corner from which there is no way out." (thanks Dina)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

"In reality, those in the Arab world who seriously support the arguments of western Holocaust denial – “the anti-Zionism of fools”, to paraphrase August Bebel’s famous remark that anti-semitism was “the socialism of fools” – are a tiny minority. In most cases, denialist attitudes stem from exasperation. This much is suggested by opinion polls among Palestinians in Israel, the Arab population best informed about the Holocaust, a subject thoroughly covered by the school syllabus in Israel (10). A first poll conducted by the University of Haifa in 2006 found, to general surprise, that 28% of all Arabs in Israel denied the Holocaust, the percentage being higher among the best educated (11). Two years later, against escalating violence, the same poll found a denial rate of 40% (12)." OK, here is the point. There is holocaust denial in Western countries, and according to Deborah Lipstadt's book on the subject, something like 1/5th of all Americans deny the Holocaust. And comrade Achqar here really overstates his case about the Mufti. I mean, even if the Mufti never stepped foot in Berlin, the Zionists would have still referred to Palestinians as Nazi collaborators. Read the Zionist literature of the late 60s, when the PLO was instantly labeled as similar to the Nazi movement.

"Some outraged female listeners find the song insulting and a degrading demand that women stay at home and be good housewives instead of taking part in the work world."This is an example of how we are going backwards," Rebecca, a feminist activist in her 20s, told Babylon & Beyond. "Talking about how the women don't have an active role and just taking care of his heart. We're going back to the dark ages."" (thanks Dina)

I kid you not. Saeb Erekat issued a press release. He is talking about the anniversary of the Nakbah. He concluded by saying: "He called on the international community to assume its responsibility in protecting the tenets and principles of international law by pressuring Israel to immediately end these policies." (thanks Ziyaad)

"Following her release from hospital, a 32 year old Palestinian woman from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah reported being assaulted by a settler on Wednesday afternoon." (thanks Sarah)

In their service to Israeli propaganda, Hariri and Saudi media have invented the notion that the Arab people are really only worried about Iranian nuclear ambitions and that they are not worried about anything else at all.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

"Since February workers from over a dozen workplaces have sat-in nearly continuously in front of Egypt's parliament. Each group has its own demands related to wages and working conditions in their workplace. Collectively, they have established a permanent presence of working-class dissent in downtown Cairo targeting the neoliberal economic policies the government headed by Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif Egypt has implemented with renewed vigor since taking office in July 2004. The success of the sit-in tactic was established in December 2007, when 3,000 municipal real estate tax collectors occupied the street in front of the Ministry of Finance for 11 days. They won a 325% salary increase; and their action led to creating the first independent trade union since the government-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) was established in 1957." (thanks Joel)

"The fact that the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Gaza were direct products of the Nakba of Israeli establishment over their ancestral homes is significant. The fact that Israel was unable to accomplish any of its political goals in Gaza, despite the wanton destruction, also has important repercussions. Thus, the Nakba, directly or indirectly, continues to be a catalyst for a continuing re-evaluation of Israel’s position as a dominating power. Militarily, the last several wars that Israel has launched against Lebanon and Gaza have made obvious its weaknesses. Furthermore, it is amply demonstrable in the world today that military superiority is no solution to determined and organized resistance and insurgency." (thanks Olivia)

"The local host, the An-Nahar newspaper, has just informed WAN-IFRA that it was unable to provide the agreed funds to meet their obligations, in the aftermath of the 2009 financial, economic and political crisis in the region. The cost of the venue, security and other local expenses was estimated to be 1.6 million Euros and could not be covered by registration fees alone." (thanks Mohamed)

"In Gaza, a handful of Palestinian men have found a way to escape temporarily from the hardships of life in their conflict-wracked home. They go surfing. Dirt poor and mainly from refugee camps, they find joy riding waves, often on makeshift boards, in the green waters off Gaza's beaches."

"Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Wednesday said that Israel will demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem in the coming days despite the renewal of indirect peace talks." (thanks Sarah)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

"From Beirut to Amman, much of today's cultural activities are conducted not in Arabic but in English, thus restricting the audience to either middle class English-speaking Arabs or Western ex-pats. "The dominance of the English language is a sign of the NGO era here in occupied Palestine," Darwish said." (thanks Sousan)

""I refuse to be a part of your campaign," says Maikey. "Stop speaking in my name and using me for a cause you never supported in the first place. If you want to do me a favour, then stop bombing my friends, end your occupation, and leave me to rebuild my community. I'm aware that my society has a long way to go in terms of human rights and social issues, but it's my responsibility, not yours."" (thanks Ryan)

"Ergun Caner's rise to the top of conservative evangelical celebrity -- and to the presidency of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell -- was fueled by how aggressively he capitalized on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to portray himself as a personal example of the power of Jesus to save even someone raised as a jihadist, which he claimed to be. There's only one problem with that part of Caner's story: it appears not to be true." (thanks Molly)

"GAO solicited all available information developed by the CIA, FBI, Department of Energy, and AEC, but was “continually denied necessary reports and documentation … by the CIA and FBI.” GAO attempted to fill in gaps or outright refusals to cooperate by directly interviewing FBI special agents. The GAO also intended to make the report public, in order to respond to growing public concerns. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, who requested the inquiry, was assured six months before it was issued that only the most sensitive areas in the report would be classified. The CIA and FBI insisted that the entire report be classified at the “secret” level over the objections of Dingell, who said, ”I think it is time that the public be informed about the facts surrounding the … affair and the possible diversion of bomb-grade uranium to Israel.”" (thanks May)

"His greatest concern, [Saban] says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His 'three ways to be influential in American politics,' he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets.""" (thanks Laleh)

"Not all Muslims speak Arabic, live in caves, beat their wives 24-7, etc. It’s a point that As’ad Abu Khalil made painfully obvious to Maher and his guests ten years ago when Maher hosted Politically Incorrect (video at bottom)." (thanks Ricky)

"More importantly, Ayalon's and Rivlin's moralism conveniently ignores Israel's history of arming the apartheid regime from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. By serving as South Africa's primary and most reliable arms supplier during a period of violent internal repression and external aggression, Israel's government did far more to aid the apartheid regime than Goldstone ever did." (thanks Sameer)

"But the swirling controversy surrounding the American deal in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province demonstrates that efforts to alter the existing power structure can have unintended and unsettling effects. The plan involving the 400,000-strong Shinwari tribe developed earlier this year when elders told Col. Randy George, a senior commander in eastern Afghanistan, that they wanted to unite to oppose the Taliban and stamp out opium cultivation. As a reward, George offered the Shinwari elders the power to decide how to spend $1 million in U.S.-funded development projects."

""There is no doubt that [Israel's] technological capabilities, which improved in recent years, have improved range and aerial refueling capabilities, and have brought about a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence," he said. "This capability can be used for a war on terror in Gaza, for a war in the face of rockets from Lebanon, for war on the conventional Syrian army, and also for war on a peripheral state like Iran."" (thanks Olivia)

I find it hilarious when Christopher Hitchens speak on women's issues (and notice he only speak about Muslim women's issues, and never about Jewish or Christian or atheist women). For Hitchens to speak on women's rights is like Bush speaking on quantum physics.

""Last Thursday, in the early hours of the morning, a Palestinian community leader's home was raided by Israeli security forces. In front of his family, the wanted man was hauled off to detention without access to a lawyer, while his home and offices were ransacked and property confiscated. While this sounds like an all-too typical occurrence in West Bank villages such as Bil'in and Beit Omar, in fact, the target in question this time was Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and head of internationally renowned NGO network Ittijah..."" (thanks Ben)

"Solidere has often been criticised for destroying historic buildings that could have been saved, and for turning the colourful historic centre, which used to be a meeting point of cultures and religions, into a glitzy but soulless area for the rich. "The neighbourhood has lost all its character, no-one can afford to live there," says architect Assem Salam." (thanks Mohammad)

"Israel is, or should be, morally ''different'' from other nations.So say the critics of its pre-emptive war against the P.L.O. in Lebanon, in which uncounted civilians have died. Because Israel was born of the world's revulsion over Hitler's genocide, the critics note, they hold it to a higher code, even in war. Some of these critics are Israelis, struggling to show how morally different they are from their Arab enemies. Are the critics right?Their case is initially compelling because of the way the war unfolded. The Begin Government, having reneged on its promises of ''full autonomy'' for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, lied at the start when it said it wanted only a 25-mile cordon sanitaire.Subsequently, it has probably lied about, or at least suppressed, the civilian casualties it has caused. Throughout, it has been less than honest - certainly unwise - in confusing the P.L.O. with all Palestinian aspirations. And it has seemed obvious almost from the start that the slaughter in Lebanon was clearly disproportionate to any immediate P.L.O. threat. But even after granting all that, there is another side. Critics of the civilian bloodshed in Lebanon now fail to remember the much greater slaughter of civilians by which the P.L.O. and Syria took over the country. By remaining indifferent until the Israeli intervention, the world has erected a cynical double standard. That does not excuse Israel from the obligation to relate ends to means, but it surely explains why most Israelis now scorn the opinion of mankind. If the world wishes to counsel the Israelis, let alone give them moral lectures on why they must adhere to a higher standard, then let the judging be fair: Why is it wrong for Israel to threaten tens of thousands in west Beirut to get at a few thousand remaining P.L.O. fighters - but not wrong for those fighters to hide in civilian neighborhoods, using innocent people as hostages? As The Economist reported while criticizing Israel's assault on Sidon: ''Civilians trying to escape from the camp were shot, apparently by the guerrillas... Palestinian prisoners the Israelis sent in to plead for the civilians to be freed are also said to have been shot.'' Why is it wrong for Israel to fight to restore a once-friendly Christian power in Lebanon - but not wrong for the P.L.O. and Syria, with Arab League sanction, brutally to have destroyed that power? Why was it wrong of Israel to let the P.L.O. grow strong enough to make all of Lebanon its base - but not wrong for Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to support that buildup on someone else's territory and at Israel's expense? Why is it wrong, woefully wrong, for Israel to ignore the aspirations of Palestinians who lost their roots to Zionism - but not wrong for other Arab nations to exploit the dispersed refugees while refusing for decades to partition the old Palestine? Why, in short, should Israel be held to higher standards of moral conduct when most Arab states still deny it even the lowest attributes of nationhood: safe borders and legitimacy? Why should Israelis believe that what the P.L.O. was allowed to do to Lebanon was not also its program for Israel? Such brutal warfare requires more justification than Israel has so far provided. It needs to answer some hard questions. Even a less embattled nation would feel obliged to follow so costly a triumph with a plausible, generous program for coexistence. Nonetheless, by fair standards, if it will finally accept the responsibility of its might, Israel deserves understanding for its plight." (thanks Sarah)

Monday, May 10, 2010

"Shootings of Afghan civilians by American and NATO convoys and at military checkpoints have spiked sharply this year, becoming the leading cause of combined civilian deaths and injuries at the hands of Western forces, American officials say."

"Palestinian tunnel-diggers are using welding torches to cut through a steel wall Egypt is building to block the smuggling of goods and weapons into the Gaza Strip, a tunnel operator said on Monday." (thanks Olivia)

"In a recent report, Israel state comptroller judge Micha Lindenstrauss prodded the government to take action to stop the "intolerable foot-dragging" and address the need for better Arabic-language "hasbara" (a term used in Israel to denote public diplomacy), a vital component in achieving the country's strategic, diplomatic-security objectives. Israel's failure in this department, he wrote, was especially evident during the Second Lebanon War." (thanks Dina)

Sunday, May 09, 2010

[Asharq Al-Awsat] When was the last contact between you and the Israelis?

[Abbas] It was during the era of Ehud Olmert (the last negotiations between Abbas and Olmert were in December).

[Asharq Al-Awsat] I mean contacts such as the telephone contact that took place between you and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Baraq last December in which you conveyed to him your preparedness to resume the negotiations if Netanyahu were to halt the settlement activities without announcing it?

[Abbas] We talked to Baraq by telephone. I talked to him more than once, Prime Minister (Salam Fayyad) saw him more than once, and I think Saeb Erekat met him more than once.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] Have you contacted him after the December contacts about which you talked to Asharq Al-Awsat?

[Abbas] No, no such contacts between him and me have taken place.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] Have any contacts taken place between him and ministers?

"As proof, for example, take the article by Barbara Opall-Rome in Defense News, May 3, 2010, "U.S. Backs Israeli Munitions Upgrades." She writes of "ever-expanding bilateral security ties unharmed by the unusually high-profile political rift" that took place temporarily. In fact, the United States is equipping Israel with GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs for its F-15I fighter-bombers and this will be followed by the same system on F-16I planes. These 250-pound bombs are called bunker busters because they are smart bombs that will go through more than six feet of reinforced concrete"" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"A homosexual father of twins who were born to a surrogate mother in India is being denied permission to enter the country with his infant sons. The move stems from a family court's refusal to issue a standard legal order that would pave the way for the children to obtain Israeli citizenship." (thanks Olivia)

"In actual fact, Herzl himself was not sure of his sanity; just one day before writing his letter to Rabbi Güdemann, he wrote in his diary: “During these days I was more than once afraid that I was going out of my mind, so furiously did the thoughts race through my head.”"

"An Israeli author is suing the family of a soldier being held by Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip, claiming he plagiarised one of her books. Shelly Elkayam is seeking royalties earned from the sales of When the Shark and the Fish First Met, a story written by Israeli Cpl Gilad Shalit when he was 11 years old and published after his capture four years ago. "The story that Shalit wrote was written by me," Ms Elkayam told Israeli army radio. "I have been a literary hostage of the Shalit family for four years."" (thanks May)

"All this might be dismissed as tabloid voyeurism had Hirsi Ali herself not turned her own most intimate history into fodder for public debate, first in her acclaimed 2006 memoir Infidel and now again in its sequel, Nomad. As a five-year-old in Somalia, she has written, part of her genitals were removed in a circumcision ceremony designed to preserve girls as virgins until they can be married off; she has since hinted that thanks to a sympathetic surgeon she got off lightly compared with other Somali Muslim women." (thanks Laleh)

Comrade Joseph: "These noble sentiments were uttered while the Israeli army was proceeding with its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and the colonisation of their lands. Indeed by 14 May 1948, Israel's army had already expelled 400,000 Palestinians from their lands and homes. Ben-Gurion was clearly calling on the remaining Palestinians who had not yet been expelled to "preserve the peace" before the army moves to expel them. But the expulsion of the Palestinians was necessary for Jewish colonisation of the country, which could only proceed peacefully once they were expelled. It is true that the Zionist movement was predicated on the colonisation of Palestine primarily by European Jews since the 1890s. But many Zionists came to regret that the organisations they set up in the late 19th and early 20th century for the colonial effort were named in ways that are embarrassing today: "The Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association", "The Jewish Colonial Trust", "The Jewish Colonial Bank", or "The Colonisation Department" of the Jewish Agency, among others. In the 1930s they tried to correct some of this as they worried it could be offensive to Palestinians. Indeed, F.H. Kisch, the director of the Jewish Agency's Political Department and the Chairman of the Jewish Agency's Executive in Palestine, proposed a change in Zionism's colonial language. He wrote in his diary in 1931 that he was "striving to eliminate the word 'colonisation' in... connection [to Jewish colonial settlement in Palestine] from our phraseology. The word is not appropriate from our point of view since one does not set up colonies in a homeland but abroad: e.g. German colonies on the Volga or Jewish colonies in the Argentine, while from the point of view of Arab opinion the verb to 'colonise' is associated with imperialism and aggressiveness." Unfortunately for future Israeli strategists, the word would persist in Zionist language, even while Israeli propagandists were insisting that the Zionist movement was an anti-colonial movement not unlike anti-colonial movements in India and Ghana." (thanks Sameer)

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

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